STEP RIGHT UP . . .

Step-sister, step-brother, step-father, step-mother, step it up, step up, step down, step back, step forward, step across, step into it, step in it, step on it, step over it, step under it, step around it, get in step.

If you have all four of the first four of these, let’s pray you’ve been fortunate enough to also have any or all four care for and love you and tend to your needs. If you do the other 13, you are compliant and evasive. (I know, I should start writing horoscopes!)

And then there’s my magnificent granddaughter who’s engaged in active ice rink competition as a member of the worldclass synchronized skating team named The Capitol Steps, based (where else?) in Washington, DC.

You know what? I love my granddaughter beyond description, and The Capitol Steps performances are remarkable in the team’s applications of  hard work, skill, spirit and discipline (5AM practices!), but I could do without all the other kinds of magical “steps” being pushed down the gagging throats of struggling business owners.

Well, okay that was a rather long way around, but you are still reading, right?

Ah, yes, some will click off here because they think there’s nothing more sensible coming.

Oh, how wrong they may be, like tossing a lottery ticket to the wind because the first number doesn’t match.

“Patience,” my mother always said, “is a virtue.” Of course my father’s credo was “He who hesitates is lost!” (Notice my father spoke with exclamation points.)

I have read The 9 Best Steps to This, and The 9 Best Steps to That; 10 Steps to Success; 3 Steps to Great Wealth; 12 Steps to Happiness; 16 Steps to Great Leadership (I guess it’s harder to be a great leader than to gain great wealth); 20 Steps to Make Your Man Happy (from Cosmo); The 7 Steps to Highly Effective Behavior Stuff, and only heaven knows all the other secret formulas.   

When I was younger, and eager to advance my career, I used to try them all. My legs got tired. Now, they actually have “Step Class” sessions… I guess to limber you up for taking all the mystical steps that promise greatness.

Here’s the point:

You own, or operate, or manage a business or professional practice.

Somehow, you have managed to keep the doors open and stay out of jail.

You already know what steps to take and which ones to avoid. You don’t need anyone else’s hocus-pocus “Steps” to take.

You need only to trust yourself more. You need to trust your own judgment. It’s what got you here and has kept your business breathing.

Sure, you can do better. But you will only do better by being true to yourself and following your heart as well as your mind.

You are on the way to making a difference in this world.

Don’t let anyone or any book or video or orator or feature story or “outside” influence prompt you to step sideways into someone else’s spotlight.

You will be wasting time and energy and money, and moving away from the strengths of your own insights and your own depth of character. Be true to yourself. 

Try new ideas, but stick to what you believe. And keep believing in you.    

  

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“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!”   [Thomas Jefferson]

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

THE JOB INTERVIEW QUESTION THAT ALWAYS WORKS . . .

I’ve seen your resume,

                          

Mr. Dweeb,

                                                

but what I really want

                             

to know is what would

                                     

you do with a million

                                             

dollars cash, right now?”

So what would YOU do with a million dollars cash, right now?

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“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!”   [Thomas Jefferson]

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

Do the WAYS

we do business

determine

the results we get?

ATTITUDES

Do you and your partners, associates, and advisers ALL demonstrate positive upbeat attitudes in practically everything you say and do? When it’s time to swallow hard, eat crow, and bite the bullet (heck of a name for a restaurant!), do you and those around you own up, face the music, take it on the chin, take some deep breaths, and then step forward, onward, and upward? 

Are high-trust responsive attitudes standard fare in all your business dealings? Do you practice and foster “OPEN MINDS OPEN DOORS” attitudes? Are you listening?

CUSTOMER SERVICE

Can you honestly say there are no exceptions ever to: the customer is always right, the customer is always right, the customer is always right? (Even when it’s a customer who has overstepped bounds, or someone you don’t particularly like?) Do you and your people try to make EVERY customer deliriously delighted. Are you invested in cultivating repeat sales with a present moment focus? Are you listening?

EMPLOYEES

Are you taking the time and trouble to get to know your people well enough to make the most of their strengths (or are you constantly trying to shore up their weaknesses)? Have you frequently matched employee need levels against Maslow’s Hierarchy (Google or Bing it if you’ve forgotten it) to most effectively motivate productive performances? Do you practice leadership by teaching by example? Are you listening?

INVESTORS, LENDERS, AND REFERRERS

Is your level of transparency what you would want it to be if you were investing in you, or referring others to your business? Are you keeping these key connections inside your inner loop? Are you tapping them as resources and regularly soliciting their input. Have you recruited them into unpaid Advisory Board positions? Are you listening?

VENDORS AND SUPPLIERS

Do you treat these resource people and companies like partners? Can you extend and generate better terms for exchanging and referring and bartering products and services? Do you keep them competitive with an ongoing bid process, and constantly review their performances while keeping open-minded to other options? Do they know where they stand with you? Are you listening?

POLICIES AND PROCEDURES

Are you running a U.S.Marine Drill Instructors Academy, or a hospice, or something in between? Is the way you run your business in keeping with the industry or profession you’re part of? Is it too much in keeping that it doesn’t stand out? Do your policies and procedures squelch innovative thinking and doing, or enhance it? How lawyer-crazed tight are your policy interpretations? 

EMPLOYMENT AND TRAINING

Are you constantly making room for top talent, and cultivating it. Are you providing enough of the right kinds of training. Are you aware of how importantly regarded expanded opportunities and responsibilities are to most people? Did you know that young people are positively more attracted to being praised than they are to sex, drugs, and alcohol? 

COMMUNITY RELATIONS

Are you and your business being good citizens in the various (professional, industry, geographic, neighborhood)communities that patronize your business and support your existence?

GOD AND COUNTRY

When you put God and country first on your business agenda, all the other pieces will fit together because both God and your country will know about your allegiance, your commitment, and where your heart is. As we sow, so shall we reap. 

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“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!”   [Thomas Jefferson]

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

Do-dah’s practice

the three Dah’s:

“Shouldah”  “Couldah”

and “Wouldah”

When did you last embark on a Dah Mission? First off it’s been said by far better men than I that the Shouldahs run together in the woods with the Couldas and the Wouldas.

All three of those Dah’s pump themselves up with regret over their conscious and unconscious choices they’ve made to reject the Dones. There’s I Shoulda Done, YOU Shoulda Done and WE Shoulda Done (whatever the stuff is that never got done!).

And, yes, there is of course the I/YOU/WE applications to Coulda Done and Wouldah Done as well.

Everyone passes this way at one time or another. Those who get themselves stuck in thinking about past events and situations that they or others mishandled (or never handled) are the ones who traditionally become and create problems for others.

Dwelling on the past is as emotionally and mentally (and frequently physically) unhealthy, as worrying about the future (which hasn’t yet come and maybe never will!).

Focusing on what might have been, on what should have been done or could have been done or would have been done, is as nonproductive a waste of time and energy (and often, money) as the underpinnings of those notions advanced by naive leaders that “HOPE” will solve all problems.

Wishing whets appetites for failure.

ACTION, not hope, is what makes things happen.

When you hear one of the three “Dah’s” worm it’s way into a discussion, treat it like a yellow caution light. Slow things down and bring attention back to the reality of the moment.

Emphasize specific steps or suggestions or directions that can be addressed. You drive through a yellow light at your peril.

And, by the way, it’s pretty hard to get where you want to go by driving in reverse, by leaving no stone unturned in assessing and evaluating and analyzing what happened that shouldn’t have, what didn’t happen, or what went wrong.

If it’s not life or death, get on with it. Take a minute to learn from experience instead of burying it under reasons and excuses, then move on. Who did what to whom doesn’t matter when forward motion is what’s called for.

We are a nation of sportaholics and we have brainwashed ourselves into analyzing things to death. We literally live for instant replays.

And just think about how much more detail we can pull out of a replay that we’ve seen three or four times. Sports talk radio stations regularly hear from callers who want to debate a game play that they’ve replayed 12, 15, even 20 times! Now THAT’s Do-Dah material. 

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“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!”   [Thomas Jefferson]

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

Too Much Spice In

Your Business

Can Cause It

To Drown.

Those who use lots of salt get thirsty. The solution of course is water. A glass or two is fine, but a tsunami inside your body or your business can be even worse that one that ravages the outside.

At least crashing waves and a flood outside your body or business allows the remote possibility of escape by swimming or clinging to a floatation device. Other than the limits of an Intensive Care Unit, there is no controlling an implosion! 

Every day, small businesses and entrepreneurial business leaders across America struggle to keep afloat — victims of government indifference, government interference, corporate giant market dominance, and aggressive competition– external tsunamis.

Internal storms are marked by under-capitalization, poor management, unproductive marketing, and over-stress. As insurmountable as these may seem to some, reality is that these at least offer the consolation that they can be controlled by choice.

Business failures

are often the result

of poor decisions

to add too much salt

Spicing up a product or service message or method of presentation instead of adding genuine value spawns ineffective, low-trust levels of reception.

The addition of meaningless razzmatazz threatens existing employee, customer, supplier, referrer and investor relations at a point where increased levels of high-trust transparency are what the marketplace is calling for.

Successful businesses and entrepreneurial leaders never sacrifice integrity for a spice rack full of new flavors and meaningless window dressing.

“Instant” hair care products that are simply water-added (and incrementally-more-expensive) versions of the original basic product, don’t even deserve retail store shelf facings. They are packaged lies aimed at prompting naive young women to spend money!

Oh, and how many fewer screaming automotive dealerships can we do without? Surely, you have many examples of your own you can add. Hopefully, your business is not one of them. 

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Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]

Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

On my honor, I will

do my best to do my duty

to God and my country

… Honor Guard… Honor

thy Father and Mother…

Military Honors...Honor

the memory…Yes,Your

Honor…No, Your Honor

…Honors Student …Oh,

yes, and:

“Honor among thieves.”

Barbara Ann Kipfer’s FLIP DICTIONARY (a wonderful Writer’s Digest resource book) shows the following under “HONOR”:  

“Accolade, adore, award, celebrate, character, commendation, courage, credit, decoration, deference, dignify, dignity, distinction, ennoble, esteem. exalt, fame, fete, glorify, glory, homage, honesty, integrity, kudos, laud, laurels, obeisance, praise, recognition, regard, reputation, respect, revere, reverence, tribute, trust, worship.”

WHAT DOES “HONOR” MEAN TO YOU?

Business and personal reputations are made or broken by the treatment of and attention to honoring commitments, delivering what’s promised.

When your leadership can inspire others –employees and suppliers– to go the extra mile, to deliver more than what’s expected, you can count yourself among the truly great captains of industry. 

Surely you will never be at a loss for customers, unless you think you’ve inherited and deserve a badge of honor because you’re part of some aristocratic family birthright (in which case, you’re not reading this anyway), honor is in reality something that’s both learned and earned. And it’s never to late for either.

As with all other behaviors that lead to various forms of good and bad and positive and negative recognition, the pathway to receiving honor is to choose to deliver it consistently first.

Those who rise to the occasion to make certain that what they promise others is in fact the minimum of what they deliver, and that they in fact deliver when they say they will deliver, and who follow through on commitments win honorable reputations. Honorable reputations sell. But only when they are continuously evidenced.

In other words, one good deed does not a respectable character make. Put another way, one business owner I know tells employees:

I don’t care that the rest of the world always wants to know the answer to the question: ‘what have you done for me lately?’

I care about what you do consistently –day after day– to demonstrate commitment to yourself, your fellow employees, our customers, and company outsiders.

Because that’s the kind of honorability that makes businesses thrive.”

How prevalent is this thinking and behavior in your organization? What will it take to punch it up?(By the way, if you’re into the “Honor Among Thieves” mindset, consider that the punishment payoff will catch up with you somewhere; do you really always want to be looking back over your shoulder?) 

Thank you, dear visitors; it’s been, well, an honor to have you visit. Please return soon.

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Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]

Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

Shakin’ in your boots?

In business, we often (sometimes even every hour –or minute– or two) find ourselves in a position of needing to deliver something under duress . . . a product, service, idea, proposal, message, estimate, document, presentation, bank balance, operational failure, employee or customer or supplier problem. And delivery is always in Eastern, Central, Rocky Mountain or La-La Land Crunch Time.

Anxiety, says Webster, is the painful or apprehensive uneasiness of mind over an impending or anticipated ill, or concern or interest . . . abnormal and overwhelming sense of apprehension and fear often marked by psychological signs (such as sweating, tension, and increased pulse) . . . and by self doubt. Not the stuff of entrepreneurs, you say?  Contraire mon fraire!

Sure entrepreneurs are self-confident and self-motivated and filled with burning desire, but they are also basket cases when it comes time for delivery of the goods — a business plan to investors, a loan app to the bank, a new operating system.

Why is that”?

Entrepreneurs are uniquely suited to have more at stake with every decision than any corporate or government manager.

Period.

Not very unlike the mindsets of our military heroes, entrepreneurs put their very (life, home, and family) existences on the line with virtually every decision every day.

Although no one in our present top level of American government has yet to acknowledge this truth or taken steps to capitalize on it: entrepreneurs are, when all is said and done, the movers and shakers of society.

Entrepreneurs are the catalysts of job market creation and employment opportunities — they are the only viable resource to tap for reversing and strengthening America’s economy. That’s a lot of angst to carry around.

Okay, so the conquering part:

•  Take some deep breaths.

• Recognize that anxiousness is a behavior and that behaviors are choices so why choose agita when you can just as easily make up your mind to instead choose calm self-control?

• Focus on the here-and-now present moment as much as possible because everything else (since it’s not here, now) is pure fantasy!

• Learn as much as you possibly can about your SELF and the things that make you come together as a person, as a leader, as an innovator.

• Surround yourself with positive people, positive events, positive pursuits, and a positive environment as often as possible.

• Don’t be afraid to seek out professional reality or Gestalt therapy or group guidance if you feel yourself drifting too far into the past or future too often. It doesn’t mean you’re losing it; it means you’re smart enough to recognize your shortcomings and to do something about them. It puts you in the top percent of enlightened human beings on this planet (which you clearly are if you’re reading this! Thanks for being here. Come again.).

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Hal@BusinessWorks.US

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]

Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

Are you making money

or providing healthcare?

The mission of doctors, nurses, hospitals, and all affiliated healthcare-related and therapeutic professions is to provide healthcare services. Emotional-based businesses and professions trying to sell rational doses of reassurance

The mission of all for-profit and (surprise) not-for-profit entities is to provide products, services, and ideas in exchange for money or other dollar-value products and services. Rationally-reassuring-based businesses and organizations trying to sell emotional triggers.  

And rarely if ever do “the twains” seem to meet.

Yet, each side of that two-edged coin has much to learn from the other.

They can protest ’til they’re blue in the face and spitting wooden nickles, but truth is there is barely a doctor, nurse, hospital or affiliated healthcare-related or therapeutic profession that knows the first thing about the realities of marketing.

It’s as rare as finding an 1861 three-cent piece in your pocket change that businesses have as much customer care savvy as an ICU nurse or front line physical therapist.

Oh, you say, but that’s not a fair comparison because business is business is business, and who can be worried about a customer problem after she or he has left the store, office, showroom, or work site. After all, we’re not in business to hold hands and pat heads.

Ah, but business is in business to cater to customers before, during and after (and long after) purchase because it’s the only way to grow the future. Boast all you want about your databases and efforts to serve the customer after the sale is made, but reality is that if you’re not doing something dramatically positive with past customers –and especially long after the sale– you’re missing the message!

What can you learn now from your past customers?

How? What’s holding you back?

(You had better be “holding hands”!) 

Hospitals have the whole lifelong loop covered. They are tenacious about providing fall-over services at every level, to present and past patients and families. They haven’t a clue about how to attract attention, create interest, stimulate desire, and bring about action, but they sure do know how to ensure satisfaction (maybe not with the bills and insurance tangles, but definitely one-on-one!)

Businesses need to take a page from that and appreciate that today’s customer should NEVER have  a reason for not also being tomorrow’s customer.

As the world gets smaller by time and communication transmission, we face enormously bigger and better opportunities to learn from one another.

And -yes– even hospitals and healthcare professionals with no business skills have an instinctive sense of customer momentum. Almost all of us could stand a booster shot of customer momentum as we troop through the daily grand rounds of our work sites and work stations, our staffr and employee meetings, and our customer encounters at every level. Think it. Try it. Do it. STOP studying things so much! Surprise yourself! 

302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]

Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

Dear family, friends,

neighbors, associates,

clients, Twitterers,

and blog visitors:

Thank you one and all for the outpouring of generosity, well wishes and prayers for my wife Kathy, and our family, during this difficult past week.

The bottom line is that Kathy is now -I am happy to report– back home getting some much needed R&R. Both of our work schedules were severely sidetracked, and I have missed connecting with all of you here on my blog for more than a week… our longest posting interruption in four years.

If you thought I might come roaring back, filled with fire, you may be disappointed to learn that I am only —still— filled with fire.

The “roar” part has dulled a little with the awareness that I nearly lost my bride of 24 years,  with the gratefulness I have for her survival, and with the seemingly endless reminders of love and friendship from so many of you, and with what clearly have been God’s blessings.

I will soon (starting tomorrow!) address some spectacular business and personal growth-related enlightenments that charged across my path during this week’s emotional roller coaster. 

Some topics I drafted during down-time waits in the Intensive Care Unit include new perspectives on leadership, customer service, communications, and marketing, among others. You won’t want to miss these. 

I also have a thought-provoking post to share on the music of business that I’m sure you’ll enjoy. It stood half-drafted for the last eight days, so I’ll be delivering that very shortly as well.

You can of course count on my continued irreverence for government, corporate giants, and business naysayers just because, hey, somebody’s gotta do it!.

I’m working my way back to you. Please visit here as the week rolls along, and please urge others to join us. Thank you again for your loyalty, patience and support.

My continued best wishes to each of you for unprecedented great success in 2011. Hal

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www.TheWriterWorks.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]

Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

Self-Motivation?

I heard you

stayed up all night

talking to yourself?

Couldn’t wait to see

Part 2? Here it is:

(Oh, and be sure to check out the P.S. at the end!)

What are some other ways to motivate yourself besides talking to yourself?

When you’re feeling negative and you surround yourself with yourself, you set yourself up to lose. When you surround yourself with positive people, who are productive, achievement-oriented, and generally cheerful, you are setting yourself up to cultivate positive thoughts and positive attitudes.

When you find yourself feeling like you’re drowning in a sea of negativity, or overwhelmed by negative people or circumstances, remember you control your own brain and your own behavior . . . it is a choice, your choice. Choose to “change the station in your brain to best fit the circumstances. Dial in HAPPY-FM because “happy” works. 

Ask yourself what’s the worst thing could happen if you get up to the plate and swing instead of cower in the dugout corner?

You might strike out? Babe Ruth’s record number of hume runs ran in tandem with his record number of strikeouts.

Thomas Edison made 10,000 attempts before succeeding at inventing the lightbulb.

All logical rational stuff, you might be thinking, but negative feelings are not always logical or rational. True, but your ability to rise above them can be.

Learn what triggers your “throw in the towel” attitude and the feelings you typically experience just before that happens, then use that trigger instead to remind yourself to take some deep breaths. Use the couple of seconds worth of deep breathing as a focal point that allows you to shut down the upsets, crank up the positive side of what’s happening, and turn the situation around by simply choosing to turn it around.

Here’s what’s worth remembering (besides talking to yourself with conviction, three times a day, for 21 days): Use these tools (deep breathing and self-talk and awareness of choosing behavior) to force yourself to concentrate on the present, here-and-now moments in your life, as each moment passes, as much and as often as you possibly can.

Just in case of some disconnect as to why one would want to do this in the first place: The past is over and cannot be changed. The future has not yet come (and may never). Now is the only time. Or, as the now famous quote goes from B. Olatunji:

“Yesterday is history.

 Tomorrow is mystery.

Today is a gift.

That’s why it’s called the present.”

It may not be possible for us to live in the present moment 100% of the time, but odds are pretty good that most of us aren’t even doing that 20%-30% of the time, so there’s lots of room to grow and improve. And improving just this one single thing about yourself will improve your daily existence measurably. Again, give it 21 days. You will astound yourself with all you can accomplish and enjoy.

You doubt it? Then you’re proving the point that you become what you think about. The choices –happy and healthy or upset and ill– are 100% your choices. Make yourself a happy camper, and watch your business perform as never before. Surely your business is worth a 21-day trial?

Need a boost? Give me a call and we’ll talk. No fee to talk. No sales pitch. Anyone who wants more will ask for it and maybe then, we can discuss some terms, but this post isn’t about money. It’s about helping you to strengthen your SELF, in order to strengthen your business.

By the way, the very short video at the “P.S.” link below should give you a jump start, maybe even launch your rocket!

P.S. Click HERE: Could you possibly have

a bad day after starting off like this?

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Hal@Businessworks.US   931.854.0474

Open Minds Open Doors

Many thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!